a Field Trip

Miss Boo and I took a wee field trip together, sketchbooks and pencils in hand, we were seeking out thistles and other wild pretties...





We talked alot about how they looked, we looked at them for a really long time...









We drew what we saw....







and admired blue skies...



Miss Boo decided that she likes drawing wild flowes rather alot, and blue skies, and field trips, and quiet sketchbook time with her mama, and I am rather inclined to agree, field trips with little ones and sketchbooks, AND blue skies, whatever could be better?

Still going....

An Embroiderers Ledger

I am taking part in Karen Ruane's class at the moment, and honestly it could not have come at a better time. If you are not familiar with Karen's work, I highly recommend you pay her blog a visit, she is stitching inspiration personified!

As mentioned previously, I received a bursary to study a 3 year course in Design and Embroidery, and I have really struggled so far with the design aspect of this course.
My creative approach to date has been somewhat haphazard, and completely unconscious. I look at lots of visually inspiring material online or in books and closely observe my surroundings, and by the time the cloth and thread comes out, an idea has formed in my head and I just make it.
For my course, I am required to evidence this creative process, and a more structured approach is quite difficult for me to grasp. There is a strong element of presentation required, and well, my higgledy piggledy drawings and process just doesn't cut it.

I do find it frustrating if I am honest. I have always been of the opinion that it is the end result that counts. Surely it is better to have a bulging portfolio of beautiful work that evidences the skill and creative flair of the student? Apparently not so when taking a course.

The internet is of course awash with inspiring examples of artistic process. None more so than Jude Hill over at Spirit Cloth. I find her approach a breath of fresh air, she writes so eloquently and profoundly about her process, what iffing here and there and asking poignant questions, this allows us to be witness to the evolutionary process of an idea or thought into something more, a cloth, a scrap of applique... It is fascinating insight into the working mind of an artist, but it is not entirely structured, however this is exactly why I like it. It's a freeform method of working, it's beautiful and natural and just entirely what I believe artistic process should be. I like how Jude starts with a small idea or question and then expands on it as she goes forward, there is often no grand plan, no detailed drawings of how the piece will look on completion, just an intuitive continuation, freedom to allow the piece to grow. I believe Jude calls this cloth whispering.

Studying a course does not allow this kind of freedom, I feel straight jacketed. Sometimes I may have a lightbulb moment, and I want to be free to dive in and start stitching, to capture the rays of light as they appear, the very idea that a piece conceived in such a way would not be acceptable is incredibly frustrating for me.
I guess I just have to go through this process, and I am sure I will be all the better for it (trusting abound), this is where I am at right now, and I have my arms and heart wide open, it's just hard...

So, I was excited to start Karen's class, I am hoping it will open up another method of working and give me some ideas of how to present my ideas and research in a more pleasing format, the first excercise did just that.

This is a colour study, we were asked to choose a print that inspired us and to do a colour study which will consequently inspire stitch. I chose an Angie Lewin print, don't you just love Angie Lewin?



And so I continue... it's all good fun.
I would love to hear your thoughts, have you taken a course before? Did you find the design process a struggle? or not?

Plans

I am putting together ideas for a very large cloth, in part for my course, but also just because.
I am not sure what the cloth will be called as yet... but I am thinking earth and it's elements. The Elemental cloth? I'll keep thinking about it.

Here are some water babes that may or may not make the final cut, I always did like drawing mermaids.



I have too many ideas, I am wondering how to make them all fit. For now, I am just going to keep going...

Peepo!

It has been a little while, a nice break, a much needed rest, recharging batteries, trying to see the world with fresh eyes.

Having reviewed my blog archives, I notice I have never been a very consistent blogger, and I spent a long while wondering about why. I concluded I have been a little lost since we left France, the purpose of this blog became somewhat skewed, and too, people change, I have changed, and I guess I am not really sure what I want to say anymore, or what is the aim of this here blog.

When I was younger, and studying art, I was expect to record my design process via sketchbooks. I never did like that much, I had it in my head that sketchbooks needed to look a certain way, that one would open them up and ooh and ahh over the contents, I felt that my sketchbooks should impress upon the viewer my skill as an artist. The result of this was that I wasn't so good at maintaining sketchbooks, I would tear pages out because they didn't look right.

I realise now (seeing how many hundreds of posts I have never posted), that I have done a similar thing here, but I realise something else, much more liberating - I realise that the whole purpose of sketchbook is just to record, document, remember, it doesn't have to be perfect, and I guess this blog is the same.

I don't have to spend hours planning posts, editing photos, worrying about how it will be perceived or what not. I don't have to do much more than just be here, to record, document and remember.... and above else, to be true to ones self.

I was fortunate enough to receive a bursary (scholarship) to study design and embroidery, so I will be sharing my course progress here, amongst many things, whatever things, just stuff, just keep going... that's what I intend to do. Keep swimming...

Art, Science and the bit in between

Lately my work time doodling has taken on a splodgy organic direction, I am fascinated with the idea of putting things under the microscope and seeing how they look, and translating those visuals somehow into stitch. Of course I don't have a microscope (I need one), but I draw cells, all colours, organic forms, free flowing, I still don't know what it means.

Then today, I found this....





Not cells, but watermarks....



Ghostly when out of focus...



A veil of cells, of sorts...



On a window...



On a Train.... mother natures paint brush.

I took so many photos, until someone asked me what stop we were at, and I realised, I was supposed to get off the train several stops ago.
But I think it was worth it, I can't stop looking at these photos. So many possibilities. Sometimes the most unexpected things inspire the most, and I am wondering how to translate this on to fabric, in stitch, or, with water? colour? coloured water?

Hey Doodle Doodle

I brought a whole load of stuffs back from France with me after the burglary, I have been enjoying looking through all my stuff that I haven't seen a while, over the weekend I found an old doodle journal. The first two drawings are from last year, before we left France, they both tickled me pink because I remember drawing them both.



Amber really did pull Hazel's tights down (I believe they are panty hose in the US?). Needless to say, Hazel was none too impressed that I chose to record her moment of shame in doodle form, bless. The little circular window on the door is representative of the boat we were travelling from on a trip from France to the UK.

The second is a doodle of a very odd dream I had about Danni Minogue, I still can't work out where the paragraph begins and where it ends and my memory does not serve me well on this ocassion, so who knows what on earth that was all about! Something in there about Bingo, I don't think I have ever played bingo, maybe I should! (It is on my flickr if you care to enlarge the pic and try and read it, good luck!).



The last doodle is a more recent addition (14th of Feb 2011), I did this at work after we closed a particularly big deal, It was a good day! I'm glad the good days are more plentiful than the bad right now, the doodles continue....



A Bientot :)

Doodle Series - Monarchs - Matilda of Flanders

It's been super interesting researching royal history to find my next subject. There are so many obscure monarchs that I have never before heard of!
For my next doodle, I chose Matilda of Flanders, Queen of the English. It was this that really tickled me.

According to legend, when Duke William II of Normandy (later known as William the Conqueror) sent his representative to ask for Matilda's hand in marriage, she told the representative that she was far too high-born, to consider marrying a bastard. After hearing this response, William rode from Normandy to Bruges, found Matilda on her way to church, and dragged her off her horse by her long braids, threw her down in the street in front of her flabbergasted attendants, and rode off.

Gosh, what a way to start married life! You can read more about Matilda here.



Sorry you can only see half of the image again, I am having difficulty resizing photos on this blog, it is driving me slightly mad. To view the full size version, visit my Flickr photostream here.
To those of you State side, who are celebrating Thanksgiving today, Happy Holidays to you!

<3

Doodle Series - Monarchs

I was sifting through some of my doodles recently, and realised that they truly are doodles in the most doodley sense, that is to say, I prepare pens and paper, sit, think and draw. None of my doodles are pre meditated, I simply draw what comes to mind, and that really, is the essence of a doodle, don't you think?
There is something inexplicably calming about allowing ones thoughts to wonder, usually in the most colourful and fantastical way. In my doodling daydreams there are toadstools and butterflies, birdies and rainbows, houses made of gingerbread and always a blue sky, oh yes.

I do enjoy doodling so, it is also the easiest creative outlet for me to fit into my day, as the children are always keen to join me when the pens and paper come out, and thus we are quite often found, one little (or large?) family, silent, or often noisily, scribbling away at the dining room table.

I decided though, that it would be fun to give myself a doodling project, a theme perhaps, as I have noticed that as of late, most all my doodles contain gingerbread houses, toadstools and birdies and what not, and well, it started to get a bit "samey", so after much thought, I settled on the theme of Monarchs.
Royal history is fascinating, don't you think? I had so much fun researching the different monarchs from years gone by, there are just so so many. My foray into history really spurred me on and it was oh so difficult to choose my first subject, but choose I did.

I am not going to limit myself to only great British monarchs, but England has such a rich history and the royal family are an endless source of fascintaing facts and imagery, it was difficult not to begin on home turf.
I knew I wanted to start with a she rather than a he, and as soon as I read about Queen Elizabeth the First, I knew it was she who would feature in the first of my Monarchs doodle series.

So Elizabeth and I spent a fair bit of time getting acquainted, at least I got to know her somewhat. I have to say she was not at all interested in me, given my civilian, bordering on peasant, status.

Very few portraits of Queen Elizabeth 1 exist, apparently the many artists enlisted to paint her Majesty failed to accurately capture her charm and elegance, so most all art works resulting from these sittings were destroyed. I broached this with the Queen and mentioned that a "little birdie" had told me that the true reason was that actually, she was a bit of a minger, wore too much led paint on account of her horrendously pock marked face, and had horrid rotten teeth and piggy eyes. Needless to say, such a comment did not go down well, though I did promise to try and succeed where others had failed and create a most charming portrait.

So, I would be of course be lying had I said it was Elizabeths apparent (or lack of) grace and charm that inspired me to choose her as my subject. It was, in truth, her strength, her absoloute dedication to her country and her oh so inspiring speeches, she was a true leader, a strong woman indeed.


See my Flickr for full size images.

I dare say, Elizabeth thought it quite gaudy and complained I made her look like a faintly surprised clown. I pointed out at least her eyes are not beady and that the colours in her dress would have been much coveted, being as such vibrant colours were not commonly available in those times.

I implore you to read a little about her, and see if you too can be inspired by her strength and the difficult times in which she reigned, fascinating stuff, oh yes.
I leave you with this, Queen Elizabeths speech to her troops as they prepared for battle with the Spanish Armada.

I am come amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all; to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor and my blood, even the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England, too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the borders of my realms: to which, rather than any dishonor should grow by me, I myself will take up arms; I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field.

Queen Elizabeth I - 1588

A Doodle a Day

At least, in the absence of my fabric stuffs, I will try and do a doodle a day!

This is called "My Neighbour is called Frankie Fox" in Berol Felt Tip pens and Stabilo Fineliners, oh and btw, my neighbour really is called Frankie Fox!

Hey Doodle Doodle

Just a wee reminder that I will be drawing names out of a hat for the blog give away, tomorrow night! There is still time to enter here, just leave a comment and you're in!

Just quickly, here are my latest doodles. Note to self - buy felt tips that are water resistant, le sigh.






See you tomorrow.... <3